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Share this Story: Corbella: As I celebrate Mother's Day, I hope infertility gets funded just like abortion

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There was a period of about five years in my life when I thought I might never fulfil my life-long dream of becoming a mother.

After about five years of marriage when Stephen and I started trying to get pregnant — or at least stopped trying not to — nothing happened. Like most people, we never imagined that infertility would happen to us even though it affects one-in-six Canadian couples.

Corbella: As I celebrate Mother's Day, I hope infertility gets funded just like abortionBack to video

At first, I wasn’t too worried. It would happen in due course, I reasoned. After all, there are tens of thousands of unwanted pregnancies a year in Canada, surely one desperately wanted one would happen. But the more time passed without a pregnancy the more I started to agonize. We went through various tests to learn that there was no reason we couldn’t conceive. And yet we couldn’t.

Eventually, Stephen and I decided to try in vitro fertilization (IVF), first in Toronto (where a pregnancy ended in a miscarriage) and then, after moving to Calgary in 1993, we enrolled with the Regional Fertility Program in Calgary.

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Were it not for the great work at the time of Dr. Cal Greene, the founder of the clinic who has since retired, and Dr. Joseph O’Keane, Mother’s Day would be a time of mourning for me rather than a celebration.

It’s significant to point out that both boys were not only conceived with the help of O’Keane but were also expertly delivered by him as well at Foothills Medical Centre. O’Keane saved Nolan’s life as he came out bottom first — a mortally dangerous position and one Nolan calls extra cheeky!

In short, our sons — one is in Halifax today and the other in Vancouver — would not exist were it not for what was then cutting-edge technology and scholarship by Greene and O’Keane. We are eternally grateful to them and to God for the privilege and opportunity of being their parents as our lives have been so enriched by our mutual love for one another.

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And tonight — one day after our sons’ 22nd birthdays and one day before Mother’s Day — Stephen and I will attend the same fundraising dinner with O’Keane to raise money for the Generations of Hope charity, which helps infertile couples who cannot afford the hefty cost of reproductive technologies.

Dr. Joseph O’Keane, an obstetricians and gynaecologists, is pictured at The Regional Fertility Program on Friday, May 10, 2019. Brendan Miller/Postmedia

Money raised by the annual Images of Hope fundraiser has led to 225 babies being born to 180 families, with another 24 on the way! Just imagine the ripple effect of love that has grown from those children in the hearts of every parent, grandparent, sibling, cousin, friend, teacher and the list goes on.

Ultimately, however, the real goal should be to have infertility funded through health care, rather than through fundraising dinners and the diligent work of tireless volunteers.

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“In Ontario, treatment for infertility is paid for through the health-care system,” points out O’Keane. “In most developed countries, in fact, infertility treatment is funded, but Canada is the odd country out, which is very heartless and wrong, in my view.”

I agree. After all, infertility is a legitimate medical condition. We live in a country that now pays for people to be euthanized by their doctors, it pays for abortions, it helps people who have harmed their health with bad habits and choices and yet it doesn’t help infertile couples have a baby? It’s illogical, inconsistent, cruel and discriminatory.

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Our sons — both in university — are already productive, law-abiding, exemplary, taxpaying citizens. One is soon to be an electrical engineer and the other is to graduate shortly in commerce. They will likely work, paying taxes with good salaries for 50 years.

O’Keane, in his lovely Irish brogue, says a typical IVF cycle costs $9,000 to $10,000 and the drugs cost an additional $4,000 to $8,000. It’s a financial hit many people simply cannot afford, discriminating against those of lesser financial means.

Thankfully, my husband and I were able to afford the cost all those years ago for the IVF cycles we went through, and the expensive drugs and hormones were covered by my work’s medical insurance.

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Michelle Chidley is so filled with gratitude for the lives of her sons Jameson, 3, and Bennett, 2, conceived through IVF at the Regional Fertility Clinic, she has volunteered her precious time to co-ordinate this Images of Hope Gala, which aims to raise about $150,000 to help couples with less financial means than her and her husband to have the chance to become parents.

“When I’ve tried to get sponsorships for this event or to raise money, many people say it’s too niche an issue but one-in-six couples is not niche,” points out Chidley, who was the late premier Jim Prentice’s communications director. “Infertility is common, but it’s not talked about broadly because it’s an emotional issue and many people feel ashamed about it.”

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O’Keane points out that IVF is invasive and painful. Nobody would choose it if it were not absolutely necessary, “and those who do go through it are the kind of parents we want to encourage — loving, caring, intentional parents who treasure their children and go to great lengths to have them.

“Why shouldn’t we help our own citizens have babies?” asks O’Keane, who is also a clinical associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Calgary.

“People have infertility not through any cause of their own. Even if people do something that’s detrimental to their health, we still look after them. We don’t say to smokers who get cancer, ‘We’re not going to operate on you and help you.’ I think it’s a huge blind spot for the government.”

“Canada should help Canadians have future Canadians,” says O’Keane.

Motherhood became a dream come true for me. I hope it can become a reality for other infertile couples out there too.

Share this Story: Corbella: As I celebrate Mother's Day, I hope infertility gets funded just like abortion

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